How Do I Build Brand Identity?
One of the most important aspects to any business or organization is its successful implementation of a brand identity. This identity is how customers and others recognize the company. With this recognition also comes a subsequent, attached set of feelings and sentiment for the company, good or bad. Read on as we explore the basics of branding and effectively creating the identity of a brand.
What is Branding?
As we’ve already touched on, a company’s brand is its identity. It is what everyone else identifies the company as. For example, if John’s company has a red dog as its logo and becomes known for treating others unfairly, people will associate the logo and color red, as well as John’s business with sentiments of negativity and dislike. This can also dictate spur-of-the-moment customer decisions in a competitive setting. On the other hand, Susan’s business touts an innocent-looking blue angel as her logo and identity. This positive visual identity, along with Susan’s business treating others well, will create an overall desirable and positive identity for her brand.
Building the Brand From Scratch
When starting a brand and cultivating its identity from scratch, one has the distinct advantage of newness. You are starting with a clean slate and no one has any preconceived notions, good or bad about the identity that has yet to be born. This is an important time to think critically about what the desired impression is to be of this new brand’s identity. As so clearly and perfectly stated by Entrepreneur Magazine, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408, “Do your research. Learn the needs, habits and desires of your current and prospective customers.”
A quick delivery service may want to impart feelings of speed and accuracy through its branding. For this, perhaps a symbol of speed and accuracy would do well: an eagle in flight, a speeding train, or even a sprinting cheetah. Perhaps a new cleaning service wants to impart a message of cleanliness and reliability. In this situation, a logo that is clean and not cluttered would be quite feasible. Sometimes companies choose visual branding identities that are not specifically relevant to the business’ function. This is sometimes risky but does work in many cases.
Rebuilding the Brand, The Re-Brand
Re-branding is the act of creating a new brand identity. This often done in the case of a troubled past or undesirable branding results. Although it can be successful, re-branding is more difficult than working from scratch in that there is already an identity that now must be scrubbed. In the case of building a new brand for an existing company, even more attention must be paid to what the new identity must convey. If the past is troublesome. The new brand’s identity must be very different from the old and very fresh, new. Get as far away from the old identity as possible.
Your business’ brand is everything. Once built, remember that it must also always be maintained. It is these concepts that will dictate much of your business success or failure. A great brand identity can assure even the most mediocre of companies a baseline propensity to real success.
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